Forgive me if it seems like I'm loitering around the subject of rock climbing. The way I see it, I may as well. For a start, I'm waiting to hear about a second interview and with the Christmas season sorted editorially (I write reviews for an entertainment website...check me out at www.phase9.tv) not to mention networking meetings petering out for the year, I have a bit of spare time on my hands. Hands I might add, that now look like minced beef and feel like a cheese grater. Attractive. I won't tell you what my feet would say if they could talk. Climbing shoes are like little iron maidens for the toes. Aside from the discomfort I couldn't be happier about getting back in the harness so to speak.
I topped out at least 8 times today - that means reached the top of a climb (bouldering to be more precise) which isn't bad given that it's been 5 years since I last climbed. After the first top out, I wobbled nervously at the precipice looking down at the navy blue of the crash mats 12 feet below, legs like jelly and the sound of blood pumping through my ears. Completely blissed out. Nothing compared to doing the same outdoors but it comes close if climbing in your thing.
I noticed a couple of things while up there. First - now that I've had laser eye surgery and can actually see - I realised how very freaking afraid of heights I still am. Secondly that there is a definite type with specific male/females attributes that are into climbing.
For men it's usually your lanky and lean type. Over a certain age, guy climbers seem to favour facial hair more often than not and seem to emanate an almost hippie-like earthiness that other so-called extreme sport types don't. Rock on is what I say.
More problematic is the female climber over a certain age. I hate to perpetuate the whole image thing that women have over the years been victims of but there was something very 'desperate housewives' about the female climber closing in on her 40s there today. I don't know if it was the make up or the ridiculously tight outfits. I'm all for flaunting it if you have it and indeed they certainly do - climbing is extremely demanding...but I don't know, I just got the feeling that they unlike their hirsute male counterparts seem to be trying too hard. It's the age old adage -women have to try harder and be better just to get the same recognition as men. Don't groan boys; with more girls being born and out-performing boys at school - your time is coming and then you'll understand what I mean because it's all about equal access. Equality is nothing more than a nice idea.
Maybe I'm being too judgemental. Maybe I care too much or maybe I'm just as bad as men of a certain mentality. Maybe I'm forgetting that I'm closing in on 40 and feeling the pressure. What better way to deflect the focus from me. Maybe for every cougar wearing lipstick at the climbing wall there is a medallion wearing man pumping iron at a gym full of sweaty natural females letting it all hang out.
And then I realised I might not have been wearing tight climbing clothes but I certainly hadn't just rolled out of bed. Perhaps making an effort is about self-esteem, after all without it we're just a bag of bones.
As I lugged my bag of bones to the bottom of the boulder for the last climb of the morning I decided to make this one a bit more emancipated. Live and let live!
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